Characteristics of metal ablation product by intense pulsed ion beam irradiation

Intense pulse ion beam (IPIB) has been extensively used in material surface modification. The ablation effect plays an important role in the interaction between IPIB and material. Therefore, the understanding of ablation mechanism is of great significance for IPIB application. Here, to investigate the ablation process and the characteristics of ablation products, pure zinc targets are bombarded by IPIB of 1.2-1.5 J/cm² energy density at TEMP-4M accelerator. The ablation products are collected by monocrystalline silicon substrates in the IPIB irradiation process. By using the scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometer and high precision balance, the surface morphology of the substrate and the characteristics of ablation products are obtained. The majority of observed ablation products are nearly circular particles with diameters of 0.03-2.00 μm. There are a small number of zinc droplets and solid debris with large irregular shapes on the silicon substrate. Combining Monte Carlo method and infrared imaging diagnostic results, a heat conduction model is constructed by finite element method to describe the distribution and evolution of thermal field formed by IPIB on a zinc target. The results show that the zinc target can be melted and evaporated under a 1.2 J/cm² IPIB irradiation. By comparing the experimental resuls with the simulation results, it is found that the gaseous, liquid and solid ablation products are generated collectively in the zinc ablation process. The causes of the different ablation products are also studied.